Silcox | Big class, big problem for Allen

That’s a wrap — or at least it should be.

Patrick Lucas-Perry’s commitment Wednesday brings the roster for the men’s basketball’s Class of 2015 to seven. Hopefully, that’s it. Because while the talent appears to be coming to Penn, perhaps there’s too much.

Coach Jerome Allen’s new studs will arrive just on the heels of another seven-man recruiting class, and this summer the team will find itself in a familiar situation — one the Quakers faced just before this school year began.

If all goes as planned, Penn’s roster will go 20-deep next fall. But that’s a big ‘if.’

Seniors Tyler Bernardini and Zack Gordon both have to secure fifth-year status. Bernardini told me a few weeks ago he was 99-percent sure it would work out, but it was not signed and sealed when we spoke.

Incoming recruit Xavier Harris has to raise his SAT score 30 points, which is looking less and less likely with each iteration of his taking the test.

Lastly — and this may be the biggest if — everyone on the current squad has to stick around. Already, Casey James has made his intention to transfer public. And I can’t blame the kid.

If James does hit the road, he’ll follow in the footsteps of last year’s freshman defector, Brian Fitzpatrick. After riding the pine for the majority of his freshman season, Fitzpatrick decided to go somewhere for a better chance to play. He’s now at Bucknell where he sat out this year as per NCAA rules.

Aside from James, four other freshmen on Penn’s roster this season saw less than five minutes per game — if they ever got in. Those five freshmen only got into an average of 8.8 games all season.

The reality is that there are a precious few minutes, and with players like Zack Rosen, Jack Eggleston and Miles Cartwright spending barely any time on the pine, there are even fewer.

Cartwright is the real outlier, and unless one of the incoming recruits can show the same brilliance and composure that young Mizzo did early on, they too will be sitting, waiting, wishing.

“To be honest,” senior Jack Eggleston said, “the way of this program, when it’s at its best, you’ve got your best players [as] juniors and seniors. Freshmen and sophomores wait, and they come in, they learn the ropes, they get yelled at … they make their mistakes in practice, and when it comes their time junior and senior year, they succeed.”

But today high schoolers are surely being told: Come to Penn, you’ll have a chance to contribute right away. How can you sell a kid by telling him to sit for two seasons?

Maybe for some, the promise of an Ivy League education is enough to keep spirits high, but James and Fitzpatrick demonstrate that hoops dreams don’t die easy.

Worst of all, if 20 players do lace up next September, Allen may have to once again cut players from the roster as he did to sophomores Tommy Eggleston and Sean Mullan last fall.

As he starts to build a name for himself among high-school coaches and players, the last thing Allen needs is the reputation that will come with players being cut and dropping after one season.

That’s a bad rap.

CALDER SILCOX is a junior science, technology and society major from Washington, D.C., and is Senior Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is silcox@theDP.com.

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